Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here on Thursday that while his Government favoured a blanket ban on dance bars, it respected the Supreme order and that it would explore all legal options including legislative intervention.
Reacting to the Supreme Court’s directive to the Maharashtra Government to implement its October 15, 2015 order on dance bars, Fadnavis said: “We are yet to receive the copy of the order,” Fadnavis said: “We respect the Supreme order. However, we are principally against opening of dance bars. We will explore all legal options including legislative intervention”.
Talking to mediapersons in Nagpur, Fadnavis said: “We would consult the law department and legal experts to first see whether it can be stopped and if not, how it can be regulated...we would also weigh all the options available before us”.
Earlier in the day, a SC bench of justices Dipak Misra and PC Pant expressed unhappiness over the State Government’s failure to implement its earlier order.
In a related development, Varsha Kale, the founder of Womanist Party of India, who has been spearheading the bar dancer’s cause, said that there should not be a blanket ban and instead the Government must work out a mechanism to regulate it.
“There are various issues like security, social security, rehabilitation and so on, and we appeal the Government to look into all these issues,” said Kale, who also founded Bharatiya Bar Girls’ Union.
It may be recalled that after carrying out necessary amendments in the Bombay Police Act, 1951, the then Congress-NCP alliance Government had on August 14, 2o05 had banned dance bars in Maharashtra.
The Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association challenged the ban move in the Bombay High Court, which on April 12, 2006 quashed the State Government’s decision and declared the provision unconstitutional, saying it was against Article 19(1)(g) (to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business) of the Constitution.